YMC GP Telephone Consultation Policy

1. Two attempts are made to get hold of the patient for routine pre-booked telephone appointments. These two attempts will be made within a 30 minute time frame.

2. For routine pre-booked telephone appointments, if the GP is unable to get hold of the patient, we will leave the following message on an answerphone machine if available: “It is Dr …. calling from Yealm Medical Centre on a routine matter. If you have an urgent problem for today, please call us back. Otherwise please book another routine telephone appointment.”

3. For urgent duty doctor ‘on the day’ booked telephone appointments, up to 3 attempts will be made to get hold of the patient. If the GP is unable to get hold of the patient, we will leave the following message on an answerphone machine if available:                  “It is Dr …. calling from Yealm Medical Centre. If you have an urgent problem for today, please call us back. Otherwise please book a routine telephone appointment.”

4. The GP may initiate unsolicited calls to patients, for example to inform them of an abnormal blood result. If we are unable to make contact, and the potential risk of not getting hold of a patient outweighs any potential breach of confidentiality, then it is acceptable to leave a concise message that does not breach medical confidentiality.

For example: “It’s Dr ….. calling from Yealm Medical Centre. Please can you phone me back at the surgery as soon as you get this message. Thank you.”

5. If the GP is unable to make contact with the patient and there is no facility to leave a message, this will be documented in the patient’s notes.